MS Office 2013 won't install, thinks I'm running WinXP

I recently had to do a clean install of Win7 (Pro 64-bit SP1) onto a new hard drive, and now I'm trying to reinstall Windows. The Office 2013 installer refuses, telling me I need to "upgrade" to Windows 7 or higher. The "details" section of the error window tells me it thinks I'm running WinXP. At first I thought that perhaps it was complaining that I hadn't reactivated Windows, but it's still giving me the same error after Windows reactivation.

My company offers Office 2016, which is what I was using before, but that refuses to install, telling me only that "Microsoft 365 and Office has stopped working." The problem seems to be with the kernelbase.dll file.

I've run out of ideas. Any help?

i.e. you have to move to Windows 7, at least.

siliconbeaver said:

i.e. you have to move to Windows 7, at least.

Yes, that's the point. I'm ALREADY running Windows 7, but the installer insists I'm running XP.

you can run a test, clean-install.

If it's ok, then you know the solution.

If still no go, my guess is at MSFT side. Office2013 is (1st) cloud-based Office, Microsoft can control what it please. In contrast, Office 2010 is last non-Cloud-based Office. you may try Office2010.

as I know, Office2013 authentication is verified every time online. When I changed job, old company's Office2013 wouldn't work once online. however, if Offline, it's running fine.

I'm not sure what you're referring to in your suggestion of a clean-install.

I had BOTH 2013 and 2016 installed (in succession) under Windows 7 before I upgraded my hard drive, so I'm not sure why it's balking now. I did do a complete Simplix update, and now the error message for Office 2016 installation is slightly different, but the Office 2013 installer still thinks I'm running Windows XP. I have a physical install disk for Office 2010 so went with that. I tried again to install 2013 and 2016 over it (hoping they would simply upgrade from 2010, but no joy. If I didn't HAVE to use the "real" Office/365 suite for work, I would ditch it altogether and go with LibreOffice.

To reiterate, I was running Office 365 under Windows 7 (64-bit Pro SP1) before I upgraded my hard drive, but now it won't reinstall (from the same installation files I used before the upgrade). The Office 2013 installer claims (incorrectly) that I'm running WinXP, and the Office 365 installer simply gives me an error message telling me only that "Microsoft 365 and Office has stopped working." No other information.

Any other ideas? I really need to get Office 365 working on my laptop.

You can install MS Office 2010, or you can try to copy KERNELBASE.DLL from Windows 7 into the office's folder in Program Files (In the folder that *.EXE file located)